Desperate Republicans And The Threat Of Violence
The Republican party has lost touch with the electorate. Voters have soundly rejected its conservative views on abortion and marriage equality. Beholden to lobbyists from the gun industry, Republican politicians have rejected common sense gun control proposals that enjoy widespread, bipartisan support. While Republican politicians continue to deny that man-made climate change is an issue, “two-thirds of Americans prioritize developing alternative energy sources, like wind and solar.” The party continues to advocate repealing Obamacare even though 62% of Americans view the Affordable Care Act favorably.
Instead of using these losses as an opportunity to course correct, the Republican party has doubled down on its unpopular platform resulting in its slow and painful death. The Republican candidate has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections. In the years since Bill Clinton defeated the older Bush to deny him a second term, only the younger Bush has been able to win more votes than the Democrat. While securing the majority in his reelection attempt, The Shrub only secured his first term when the Supreme Court handed him the Presidency with a ruling so partisan that the justices declared it could not be used as precedent by future courts. Trump had fewer votes than Hilary Clinton but won in the antiquated Electoral College, a feat that he was unable to repeat in 2020.
Frustrated by this string of losses the party has increasingly turned towards violence. The last election cycle concluded with an attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, which resulted in $2.7 million of damage to the Capitol Building, 174 injured police officers, and the deaths of four of their fellow protestors.
Instead of condemning this assault on democracy, Trump has referred to its participants as patriots. The defeated former President calls those convicted for their roles in the violent attempt to overturn an election “hostages” and promises to use his pardon power to free them if he is returned to the White House.
In his third attempt to secure the presidency, Trump has continued to engage in rhetoric that threatens to inject violence into the democratic process. Not only has he continued to spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, but he regularly tells his followers that the only legitimate outcome for this year’s election is one in which he is the victor. Any loss would indicate that it was stolen, an outcome that would justify a “bloodbath for the country” at the hands of his followers.
Should Trump occupy the White House for a second term, he is already promising to be a dictator on “day one.” His administration would be guided by the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025”; a 1,000-page playbook that “calls for far-reaching changes in government, including rolling back protections for the LGBTQ community and infusing Christianity more deeply into society.”
The proposals in “Project 2025” are so radical that the leader of the Heritage Foundation considers them to be a “second American Revolution.” He promises that this revolution will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.” Stand in their way by voting against Trump and all bets are off.
While introducing VP candidate JD Vance at a pro-Trump rally, Ohio state senator George Lang took the threat one step further. Claiming that this November’s election is “the last chance to save our country,” the elected official said that if they lose “it’s going to take a civil war to save the county”. He concluded that in the event of such a war, he was “glad we got [SIC] people like…Bikers for Trump on our side.”
– President Biden
With less than a hundred days to the election, one party is asking for your vote while the other is threatening to take control no matter the election’s result. It is clear which side deserves the vote of those who support the continuation of democracy in our country.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.